All right, if you will, open
your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes 3. Since we've started our move
from New Jersey to California, ever since we've found out, we've
had a lot of changes. We've had times where we've been
very happy and times where we've been very sad. We've laughed
a lot with our brethren. We've wept with them. It seems
there have been times that we went to war with, and still are,
times with realtors and buyers of homes, sellers of homes. We've
had times of peace with those people. When I woke up the night
we packed our house out, we got everything loaded, the brethren
came over and helped us put it on the truck, and I was right
in between sleeping and awake, and I was dreaming of my pastor
preaching, and a verse came, to me, and I got up and I started
studying. And he actually, that day we were loading boxes, he
said, now if you want in the morning, you can preach the first
message. And I said, no. What am I going to do? What am
I going to prepare? And I thought the Lord woke me up, and I was
like, I may have a message for the morning. I started studying
it, but quickly I got real tired after a couple of hours. And
I thought, well, that ain't for there. I think it's for me. But
this text here. was on my mind heavy and has
been for several weeks now, all the changes that we're going
through, these different times and seasons of events. But in this world, we have a
lot of changes, don't we? A lot of ups and downs, a lot
of happy times, a lot of sad times, a lot of times of hard
work. We have times of sweet rest,
too. We have times of great joy, times
of great sorrow, times of gains, times of losses. But here's what
Solomon wrote. Here in verse one of Ecclesiastes
three. To everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born
and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to
pluck up that which is planted. We know these things, don't we?
We see children born and we have loved ones pass away. A time
to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time
to build up. A time to weep and a time to
laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and
a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time
to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. A time to rend and a time to
sew. A time to keep silence, a time
to speak. A time to love and a time to
hate. A time of war and a time of peace. And these eight verses, we see
a lot of the chaos that is our lives. Things come and go. Every
day seems to be different. But for the believer, there's
one of these things that doesn't change. Our God doesn't change. We change, don't we? Our situations
change, our circumstances change, but God doesn't. He gave these
words to Malachi when he said, for I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, because of that reason,
because he doesn't change, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. That's something to hang your
hat on, isn't it? Time doesn't stand still for us. We can't
hold on to any of the things that we have, and that's a good
thing. If we held on to our sorrow, too much sorrow, we'll be broken. But too much times of great pleasure
and what we appear to be gracious to us, and we'd be ruined. We'd
be corrupted. We'd get high-minded. Too much
material blessings, and we'll be puffed up above our brethren.
But too much poverty, and we'll be in despair. The Lord knows
when to give what He needs and what we need. But all these things
come and go. And I've seen that happen, and
many of you have seen that happen throughout our lives. They all
come and go but one, and that's love. So I want to look today
at Christ's love towards us, his time of love. In Jeremiah
31, it said, the Lord hath appeared unto me of old, saying, yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness have I drawn thee. He everlastingly loves us. I hope we'll read through this
again at the end, and we'll have more comfort in each of these
areas. But what is that love that Christ has towards us, that
everlasting love? Is it enough for me to just love
my children, or do I act on that love? I don't tell Kimberly,
I say, honey, I love you, and then I step back and don't do
anything. No, I act on that love. John wrote this in 1 John 4.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He not only loved
us, He gave us His Son. He sent Him to us. The Father
not only loved us, He acted on that love. The God of this Bible
is proactive, not reactive. A lot of people, unfortunately,
don't know Him, and they think He bends to their will. hang
up on him, I guess, and get him to do things. No, our Lord is
active. He wills things. We want to do
things, and he does things. But our Savior said this in John
15, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down
his life for his friends. Christ came for those people,
and he laid down his life. He gave up the ghost. No one's ever done that. We may
have talked about that before. But I can't say today, like right
now, that's it. I'm leaving. I'm going to die
now, and then die. Our Lord did that. But he came,
and he lived that whole life. He fulfilled all those. He had
that law written in his heart, like Bob showed us this morning.
He fulfilled everything, perfectly looking to the Father. He did
those things. And he laid down that life. He
sacrificed that human life of the God-man here for his people. We have times of love and we
have times of hate. I've experienced that. But these
things are true of our Lord, too. In that love is righteousness
and hate is wickedness. That's why he was anointed to
be above his fellows. There's a righteous hate that
we can have for lies against our Lord. But our God, the Father,
hated sin. He hated wickedness. And he punished
that. And he's either going to punish it in the person themselves,
or he'll punish it in their substitute in Christ. But for those that
Christ loved, he loved us in purpose in the beginning. God the Father has a people.
These scriptures declare it plainly, declare it boldly, and whenever
we share the gospel with someone, it's never something to argue
with. I used to be very argumentative with the scriptures. If you tell
someone who the Lord is, there's no sense in arguing with it.
It won't get you nowhere. We declare the gospel. That's
what the scriptures do. If I tell this book, no, it's
not going to say anything back to me. Our Lord was silent. There's
that time of silence whenever hair come to Him. He answered
Him, not a word. We declare who Christ is and
leave it alone. He'll take care of it. God has
a people, and he put those people, he trusted them in Christ before
the world was made, and through him, through his life, through
his work, his atonement, his looking to the Father the whole
time, and his ascension, because of him, we will be made like
him. Ephesians 1, 3 says, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. So
to be a recipient of that, someone that experiences that love, is
there something I have to do or stop doing to be able to enter
into that love? Where I'm from, it's very popular.
You have to As soon as I stop smoking, I'll start going to
church, or as soon as I quit drinking, or quit gambling, or
whatever. We always said in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, everybody needs to quit drinking. But in central
Kentucky, where they make bourbon, everybody needs to quit smoking,
since whatever doesn't hurt the local economy. But is there limitations
we have to put on, something I have to do before I can start
coming to services, before I can hear that gospel? Romans 5, 8
says this, but God commendeth his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's who we are. We were just dead, wretches,
worthless, incapable of performing anything. And that's when Christ
died for us. We'll get more on that in a minute.
In the Lord's purpose, did he pick the group that was largest?
I've heard that argument quite a bit, too. They said, well,
God's going to get 51% of the people at the end of time, and
the devil will get 49%, and whoever gets the bigger number wins. That's foolish. They said, look,
turn over to Deuteronomy chapter 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7, excuse
me, be in verse 6. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that
are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people. For ye were the fewest of all people. But because the
Lord loved you, and because he would keep The oath which he
hath sworn unto your fathers hath the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of the bondman
from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. You see the language
there? It says because the Lord loved you, because he kept the
oath, because he brought you, he redeemed you. That's not something
of us, is it? He has performed these things
already. So that's in His purpose. So we saw Christ's time of love
with us in the Father's purpose, and He loves us in Providence.
We've had the beginning and now the continuance throughout our
lives while we're here. The time that we live in that
we see. We were given this physical life,
like Paul said, the Lord has separated me from my mother's
womb. We understand those things. We've
had several children, You can do anything you want to try to
get that child. You can walk and drink castor
oil or rub pressure points on the feet and whatever. That baby's
gonna come out when the Lord wants it to come out. We understand
that. But the Lord provided everything
for us. He gave us that life, that physical
birth, and he brings us through our whole lives, the ups and
downs, until that time appointed whenever his ambassador comes,
he sends just a sinner, stands up here and tells you who Christ
is. And he uses that and he pierces that heart. Whenever he does
that, it starts making sense. You've experienced that you see,
wow, the Lord's my whole life has led up to this point. Everything
throughout creation throughout time has led to this point for
me to hear who Christ is to hear who I am and my need of him.
We can see those things. And he's provided everything
after that moment. Nothing changes. Romans 8, 28
says, and we know that all things work together for good. Not all
good things, all things. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to his purpose. Not ours, his purpose. When you
first heard that God was just, He punishes sin, but he was also
the justifier by sending his son to be that propitiation force,
to be that substitute force, to bear that burden for us. Then
we started to see how everything was in order. It's his order,
his time. Brother Andre isn't here, so
I can pick on him some. We were talking about going to
war, and the Lord may have caused that whole war overseas just
so a couple of us can learn more about him or learn of him. It's
whenever he first heard who Christ was. And he said, he may have
started that whole war just to save me. Could have. He said,
I'd give nations for you, hadn't he? He said, in Isaiah 43, for
I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I
gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou
wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable. We're honorable
because we're precious in His sight. So since thou wast precious
in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Therefore,
I will give men for thee and people for thy life. Nothing's
too great for the Lord. We've come this whole way, Thomas
told us earlier, for the Lord, for me to travel 3,000 miles
safely and not have a flat tire have a car wreck or anything
else. That's no great feat for the Lord, but it's big to us,
isn't it? We see those things. For the Lord to give a whole
nation for one of his elect, that's nothing. If he sent me
all the way across the United States, bringing me here, and
I could comfort one of his sheep, or if he uses this poor mouth
and horrible accent to save one lost sinner, that's worth everything,
isn't it? He does those things, and he
gives all that for us, but also he sends trials to us. Hebrews
12 says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth
every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God
dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father
chasteneth not? If I love my children, I don't
let them do anything they want. I'm so thankful the scriptures
are putting things we can understand. He talks about dirt and seeds
growing. You can go out and look at that.
You have children. You can look at those children and say, if
I love them, I'm going to correct them. I'm going to tell them
what things are wrong, what things are right. I'm going to show
them. And I'm going to let them learn it. Not just tell them, but show
them. Like, make them go through some things. That's what our
Father does to us. David was frustrated, wasn't
he? When he wrote, he said, Lord, I get so sad. I look over and
I see Their eyes are bulging with fatness. They have no worries.
All their children sitting at their table and everybody's happy
and looked off all the things and the stuff I had to go through
and how weak I am. And he said, but then I went
into the temple of the Lord. And he saw his righteousness.
What a gift it, but the Lord gives us trials. He sends us
those times. Let's look at our text and. Ecclesiastes 3, but
down in verse 14. This providence of the Lord is
going We're experiencing now what's happening as we sit here
today. Ecclesiastes 3.14, I know that
whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put
to it nor anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men
should fear before him. When the Lord does things, there's
two types of fear. Lord's gonna make some things
come to pass and people wanna physically fear him. Like Herod
was, he'd be afraid, but then there's that honoring fear. When
we see what the Lord does, I couldn't have planned that any better.
Look how he wrapped that up. We fear him with honor, don't
we? All the glory goes to him. Look at verse 15. That which
hath been is now. What's that mean? Everything
that the Lord declared would happen up to this point is now. That's what's happening right
now. And that which is to be hath already been. What's going
to come, what's going to happen in my life, what's going to happen
in your life, to every minute detail, it's already set in stone. The Lord's declared it before
the foundation of the world. This will happen. And God requireth
that which is past. What does He require of me? We
have to believe on Him. We have to believe on His Son.
But what work does He require? It's already passed. charged
his saints to Christ before that world was made and said, these
are my people, and you're going to die for them. At that moment,
he was satisfied. That's how powerful the word
of the Lord is. It still came to fruition. He
still went through it. But when Christ said, I'll stand
in their place, it was done. That's part of that everlasting
love we can't understand. I'll be able to explain it sometime
within the next 100 years. I'll be able to explain it better.
But we believe it, don't we? One of the writers said, him
that requires a sign, no explanation will do. And him that believes,
no explanation is needed. I'm beginning to learn how much
I don't know. Anyway, that's the Lord's providence.
He brings us through those things and teaches us throughout our
life, don't he? Till we come to that point where we believe
him. So in purpose and in providence,
he loved us. And in salvation, he loves us.
Ezekiel 16, 8 says, let's turn over there just to the right
a little bit, a few chapters, a few books. Ezekiel 16, verse 8. It says, now when I passed by thee
and looked upon thee, behold, Thy time was the time of love.
Here's his time of love. What does he do during that time
of love? And I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. We were naked when he come to
us. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with
thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. That's when
they said you've been bought with a price. I'm not my own.
The Lord did a work for me and in me. I'm his. I'm his property. If there's anything that he sends
me to do, I'm glad to do it. It's not my life that I'm living,
it's the life he's given me. But when he does those things,
when he covered us, that's what Christ's work on the cross was,
and how, that's why I was so impressed this morning, Bob,
how, according to the scriptures, he died for us. That's important,
exactly as it's declared. But Christ atoned, he made atonement,
I was made one with the Father through his work, his death on
the cross. He bore me. And he was made sin, that noun. He was made Kevin. And everything
that I am, I can't understand that. That's something my brain
can't fathom. One sin of mine is worth an eternity
of punishment. And he swallowed all of that
through one act. He lived one life, paid one price,
and bore it all. And I could never understand
it, never explain it, but he didn't just do it for me. If
that doesn't dumbfound ya, every saint that ever lived throughout
time, every sin that ever one of them committed, who they are
by nature, the Lord swallowed the wrath of Almighty God. God
separated from God. And in that one time, he accomplished
forever. All that. We cannot grasp how
glorious Christ is, can we? We can study forever, but we
can't do it. But he did it in salvation. And
when he did that, was it effectual? We all know these passages, but
it's good for us to look at. Turn to John chapter six. And Christ died for those that
he was charged with. And he paid that price for them
so we could have a be born again and at the end of time be made
like him. Was it effectual? Did it last?
We're there in John 6 and verse 37. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. That's going to happen, it's
a commandment. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me. He's about to tell us. That all
of them, that all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again the last day. Is that a comfort
to you? That we were met naked there when He came to us. He
covered us with His robe. He made a covenant with us. He
brought us out. He redeemed us. We're His now. And it says all that those that
He did that for shall come to Him. And through that providence,
you may wind up here today and never heard this, and that's
His bidding. But He shall draw them out. They
shall come to Him. And then those that come to Him,
He did this work for, will never lose it. He'll never cast us
out. Does that give glory to man? It gives glory to one, Christ, the
one who deserves it. And once he's done that, he's
sitting on his throne right now. So the Lord saves me. I'm born
again inside. He gave me life. He quickened
me, pierced me in the heart. There's a new nature in me. Now,
do I have a clean slate and I'm responsible to keep all that?
I live in this body, and I can tell you different. If that's
the case, I'm in trouble. But what's going to happen now,
because I still live in this linear time, don't I? Here's
what Romans 8 says. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Christ accomplished all
those things, and right now, at the right hand of God, he's
making intercession for me with the Father. When I try to pray,
I was trying, I was trying this morning, I try to pray and it
only makes sense to me. That Spirit that's given to me
the things to pray, There's an intercession made there. It's
just one little old lady translates it for me. That's what I need,
isn't it? Even in prayer, there's nothing.
All I do is wickedness. Christ is making intercession
for us now with the Father. So we'll see these things. We
see in the beginning, in the continuance, in the culmination.
So that's in creation. Providence and purpose creation
and in Providence and in salvation. It's all Christ He loved us with
an everlasting love. How do we respond to that? John
wrote this as well. We love him because he first
loved us We see that love for us and we believe him we don't
just believe in him That's what the scripture says. You believe
that there's one God good for you. Satan believes there's one
God We believe God. We don't just believe in him,
we believe what he says. We obey him. Commandments that he's given
us. His precepts. We want to obey
him. Have a desire to. And we honor
Christ. We give him all the glory. He's
done it all. And we love our brethren. Christ
in them. That's what I may have told you
before and I hope I tell you a lot. The closest thing that
we have to Christ in the flesh on this earth is our brethren.
Is Christ in them. How we treat them is how we treat
him. My wife, she's a child of God. How I treat her is how I treat
him. That would make me want to change how I approach people,
wouldn't it? One of those commandments, Christ
said this in John 15, this is my commandment that you love
one another as I have loved you. That's a forgiving, everlasting
love, isn't it? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that begat, one that gave us life, loveth him also that's
forgotten of him. If I love the Lord, how could
I not love one that he's bought, that he's redeemed? We have the
same God, same new man, same spirit in us, don't we? I'll
wrap up with this. Excuse me. While studying this, I saw Spurgeon
had a note, a side note on this passage, and that really affected
me, and I hope it sticks with me. We have a privilege serving
together, laboring together, and I thank you all again for
helping us so much in the short time that we've been here. I
feel horrible. I'm here to be your servant.
I'm here to help you, and I've been leaning on you all way more
than you've leaned on me in the last couple days. We have a privilege
here on this earth to help our brethren, to wipe away tears,
to heal wounds, and pray for them, and do other things. And
this is the only time we'll have to do it. Whenever we're in glory,
there'll be no tears to be wiped away, will there? There'll be
no hot water tanks to replace. Your plumbing won't break in
that mansion he's made for you, Bob. A special time is what a privilege
and an honor to be able to help our brothers and sisters, to
pray for them, and to be able to spread this gospel to our
co-workers and our friends and barbers or anything. When we're
in glory, we won't be able to be glorifying Christ, but we
won't get to see a new person come to the knowledge of Christ
and see that light be turned on in them and that passion and
that joy when it's that first new love, we'll all know him.
This is a precious time we have here, and it's the work that
the Lord's given us, and I pray that he'll keep Christ in our
minds, keep us glorifying him only, and give us the heart to
rely on that, on him to spread this gospel, to comfort our brethren.
Anyway, that was a blessing to me, and then let's read through
that again. Let's go back to our text, Ecclesiastes 3, and
I'll wrap it up. With these things in mind, we'll
look at these ups and downs again. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1. To everything
there's a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. A
time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time
to pluck up that which is planted. During those times, we look to
that love of Christ, don't we? A time to kill and a time to
heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to
weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to
dance. A time to cast away stones and
a time to gather stones together. This is a, what we're living
right now is a gathering of stones. Joel speaks of that whenever
the saints, it says gather the saints, gather the elders. These
old stony hearts are brought together to let the bridegroom
come forth and to honor him. That's the love of Christ to
bring these stones together. Time to refrain from embracing.
A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. A time to rend and a time to
sow. Time to keep silence and a time
to speak. A time to love and a time to
hate. A time of war and a time of peace. I pray that that'll bring peace
to your hearts. and give you comfort in these
times now, whatever you're going through, good or bad. If you're
on top of the world, look to Christ. If you're down at the
bottom of the world, look to Christ and you'll never be disappointed. I can assure you. Anyway, let's
pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for gathering us here.
Thank you for the opportunity to. Look to your son. Thank you for
these brethren, Lord. We love them and thank you for
the opportunity to serve them. What a privilege and blessing
it is from you, from your hand, that you've given us this work
to do, however small, Lord. What an honor. Give us a heart
to see that it is an honor. It's a blessing from you to love
our brethren, to rejoice with them, to weep with them, And
how thankful we are, Lord, that whenever you look at us, you
see your son. You don't see what we are. Make us thankful. Make
us glory in him. It's in his name that we ask.
Amen.